Technically speaking, you could trace the origins of the computer back to some caveman named Grog stacking rocks in the corner of his cave to keep track of how many wildebeest he brought down that week.

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There are plenty of similar "computers" throughout history, but let's be honest -- when we talk about computers, we're not talking about the abacus or any bronze thing Leonardo Da Vinci thought up. We're talking about things that plug into the wall, and -- within a few minutes of switching them on -- make men figure out how to get pictures of naked women on them.

In the past 40 years, we have been on hand for a fantastic boom in technological advances. In fact, there'll probably be five new technological breakthroughs between my writing this and when it gets published.

Let's take a look at the computer and how it has evolved over the years, starting with a time when bigger was better ...

ENIAC and room-size computers

The very first computer was named the Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC). Built by the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, ENIAC cost $500,000 ($6 million adjusted for today's dollars) and was soon transferred to the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland where it was used for calculating artillery firing tables.

It wasn't controlled with keyboards and mice -- ENIAC was programmed with a plug board, punch cards and switches. Rather than a computer monitor, operators saw results through a series of lights. And it took up a meager 1,000 square feet of floor space.

True, at this point you couldn't check your email or update your Facebook status, but it was a start.

From there, computers maintained their huge size, but found themselves used mostly in industry, universities, and in accounting capacities. It wasn't until decades later that they started coming home.

Next, we look at what happens when computers get personal ...

Personal computers

The first personal computer was the Apple I, which was introduced in 1976. It was far from the types of computers you can buy now. You didn't just open a box and lug the thing in. You were, basically, supplied with the motherboard and a few other components, but you had to provide the power supply, the keyboard, enclosure and a few other incidentals.

But the Apple I laid the foundation for the hugely popular Apple II, and that computer opened the floodgates for all sorts of competition.

Radio Shack found popularity with its TRS-80 machines, and Commodore brought the computer to the masses with its VIC-20 and Commodore 64 models. You could walk into Target, buy one and plug it right into your television.

By 1981 IBM had come out with its first personal computer and the first version of MS-DOS (which forms the operating system foundation for computers today) was introduced.

Up next, you wanted these kind of mice in your house ...

Introduction of the GUI

By the early 1980s, computers were gaining popularity -- and utility -- but there was only one way to tell the computer what to do to itself: through a keyboard. You had to type in cryptic sequences (like: copy /a alpha.txt + beta.txt gamma.txt) to make it work.

In 1983, Apple introduced its Lisa computer -- it was the first with the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that we all know and use today.

Lisa never took off -- it cost $10,000, for one -- but they followed it up with the wildly popular Macintosh. It didn't take long for Microsoft to realize they needed a pony in the same race, so they developed Windows, the operating system that runs most of the computers out there today.

While the Macintosh changed the way we interact with our computers, Apple can't take all the credit for the GUI idea -- Xerox came up with it first.

But computers were still pretty big, let's see what happened as they got smaller ...

Laptops and tablets

According to Forrester Research, in 2010 laptops accounted for 44 percent of the computer sales while desktops represented 27 percent. But it took almost 30 years for the laptop to really catch on.

The first laptop was the Osborne 1, a portable computer that weighed 24 pounds and cost $1,800. It was a great idea -- too bad it never really took off.

Throughout the 1980s, different companies took a swipe at the laptop, adding their own enhancements and improvements to the device.

In 1989, NEC introduced what was first recognized to be the first notebook-style computer -- it weighed five pounds and gave us the laptop design style we recognize today.

It was by the 1990s that laptop design and production really brought innovation and functionality to the machines. Over the years, laptops have become slimmer, lighter, and far more powerful than the venerable Osborne 1 ever dreamed.

But computers were far from done shrinking, as you will soon discover ...

iPad, cellphones and beyond

Remember Grog from the beginning of this article? We've come somewhat full circle. While we aren't stacking rocks and calling them a "computer," the fact is that computers don't just adhere to the desktop or laptop image that we immediately think of when we think of "a computer."

Smartphones, iPods and iPads are all extensions of the computer. While they aren't conventionally thought of as computers, they still provide all the computational functions that we want.

We can play games, we can send and receive email, we can write letters, we can read a book -- we can do nearly everything on our mobile devices that we can on our desktop computers.

And this is where you can expect to see even more innovation -- our smart phones will gain more functionality; our tablets will get lighter and do more.

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